10 Perfect Alternative Rock Albums With No Bad Songs
1. The Downward Spiral - Nine Inch Nails (1994)
Unless you want to shock you body into a crazed frenzy of pent up rage, this is not an album to listen to first thing in the morning. Trent Reznor's second album will slap you around the face with industrial break beats and unapologetically visceral lyrics.
After the initial shock that comes form the opening track, Mr. Self Destruct, Reznor pulls things back with Piggy. With a moody bass driving him along, he almost whisper his lyrics, as he gradually introduces layers of industrial percussion. Closer, contains a sludgy wobbling bass line, that pulls your right down into the murky underbelly of the sexually explicit lyrics. The album continuously flits between eerily quiet moments and outbursts of pure musical aggression.
The experience ends with two equally haunting tracks that take on very different forms. The Downward Spiral contains unnerving vocal samples, reminiscent of someone falling down a deep dark hole; while Reznor delivers spoken word lyrics over crackling ambience. Finally, it concludes with Hurt, his rawest and most exposing number to date. The lyrics are no more extreme or self deprecating then others within the album, but without the safety of all the crashing industrial beats, Reznor is laid bare.